Pictures: Massive Maya City Revealed by Lasers

1 / 7

An April 2009 flyover of the Maya city of Caracol used Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) equipment—which bounces laser beams off the ground—to help scientists construct a 3-D map of the settlement in western Belize. The survey revealed previously unknown buildings, roads, and other features in just four days, scientists announced earlier this month at the International Symposium on Archaeometry in Tampa, Florida. (Read about the rise and fall of the Maya in National Geographic magazine.)

University of Central Florida anthropologists Arlen and Diane Chase have spent decades hacking through the tangled undergrowth that has engulfed the powerful city—which thrived between A.D. 550 and 900. So far they've uncovered only a tiny fraction of the ruins.

"It's like literally removing all of the plant growth, so that we can see down below," Arlen Chase said.

Among other features, the new LiDAR images captured Caracol's tallest buildings, a set of palaces and temples called Caana.

To reproduce the landscape in 3-D, a twin-engine plane flew over the city and fired laser beams through the dense tree canopy. The beams bounced off the ground, buildings, and other structures below. (See an interactive map of the Maya civilization.)

The laser's path from plane to ground and back again was then measured and triangulated with the aid of GPS equipment to create the data for the 3-D maps.

The Maya called the Caana temples and palaces the "sky place" (pictured, people sit atop the temple ruin in an undated photograph).

The LiDAR data allowed the University of Central Florida anthropologists to develop accurate 3-D representations of known structures, such as the Caana temples. (See pictures of the Maya civilization.)

But the project also revealed thousands of new structures, 11 new roads, tens of thousands of agricultural terraces, and even a number of hidden caves throughout a city, which is now known to stretch over 68 square miles (177 square kilometers).

"Caracol is what we call a low-density agricultural urban center, like Angkor Wat. It's a type of city in which the agriculture is literally part of the city itself, and the whole landscape is integrated into the city," Diane Chase said.

Four views of the ancient Maya city of Caracol show—clockwise from top left—a satellite picture, a LiDAR image of the tree canopy, a LiDAR image of agricultural terraces and causeways, and an archaeological map.

Caracol's extensive terrace and reservoir systems for holding water show that the Maya were practicing sustainable urban design centuries before it was fashionable.

Only a few such terraces had been mapped before the recent LiDAR survey, so scientists hadn't yet known just how crucial this form of agriculture was to life in the Maya metropolis. (Test your Maya IQ.)

The Maya made several agricultural terraces (pictured above as wavy ripples) near Caracol's Ceiba Terminus area.

The LiDAR images also exposed clusters of buildings, industrial sites, markets, and plazas, as well as roadways that linked these areas. Some known ancient sites not previously thought to be part of Caracol are actually integrated with the massive city, the LiDAR data have revealed.

"The LiDAR is the most effective way for us to see how dense the population was, how dense the agricultural terracing was and its relationship to the housing, and just how much these ancient people modified the landscape," said team member Arlen Chase.

This ceramic vase adorned with a carving of the Maya sun god was produced in Caracol around A.D. 750 and found during an archaeological expedition.

Some 115,000 people are thought to have lived in Caracol during its peak—more than twice the population of modern-day Belize City. The center of the metropolis was burned around A.D. 895, probably during warfare, and the city was completely abandoned by 1050, according to the project team.

Though lasers, satellites, and other imaging techniques are revolutionizing the fields of archaeology and anthropology, they're no substitute for scientists getting their hands dirty (pictured, anthropologist Diane Chase at work at the Caracol site).

In fact, the LiDAR data of Caracol have suggested plenty of sites ripe for ground-level research, according to Chase.

Some building clusters, for example, don't have obvious functions. The researchers also hope to explore some nearby but unconnected sites that may date to a different time period.